Looking through what the Fabricator was capable of making, nothing good was coming up, the best thing I found for communication was a series of colored lights I could make, but I wasn't about to spend a bunch of resources on something sub-par. There had to be more right?
I then remembered something, Fabricators were calibrated to the resources of the planet, they always omit fabrications that include materials that aren't available on the planet. The problem I had was that my Fabricator was calibrated for the previous planet, and while I knew there was Plumbite, Fibrewood, Oleite, Carbite, and Rodite, I haven't seen any of the other resources. I couldn't just recalibrate the Fabricator either, it requires a planetary scan, something that wasn't possible without a satellite.
I was stuck with manually ticking each resource option, and there were a lot, so I began by only ticking the most common resources, things like Cuprite and Stannite. With those selected, I was able to see a large amount of items added to the fabrication list, a quick search through revealed multiple duplicates of some fabrications, while also revealing others, like speakers! Once I fabricated some speakers, I'd have to ask how the person who lived in the tree where they got their resources, I could always use more.
Speakers did require that I obtain some Cuprite, though I knew what it was, I had no idea where to find it. With nothing else to do I made my way back out to the ravine in search of some Cuprite. It was still night, much to my dismay, but then something extraordinary happened, a bright flash of light emanated from the ruins above the ravine, coming from said flash, a bright rainbow arced up above only to come back down inside the ruins. Quite the spectacle I must admit, what surprised me more though, was that after several moments, the moon started moving, and when it went past the horizon the sun rose, bringing with it glorious sunlight.
What the heck it going on? Moving entire celestial bodies like that can't be easy, unless that's not really a star, but some smaller moon-like object that also provided light. Never the less, light was still light, and light meant power with solar panels, which I knew I had. Quickly entering the base once more, I retrieved the solar panel and batteries, coming back out I set up a quick power station. The batteries filled up, though rather slowly due to the lack of generation.
Now that I had power, I could finally repair some of the damaged blocks I have, I could also finally equip my tech with shields, not that two batteries would last long in a battle, but any protection was better than no protection. What I really wanted to do now, was investigate that flash of light from the ruins earlier, and with my newfound protection I felt like I was ready to take on some stronger entities.
New problem, the only entrance to the ruins was a simple rope bridge, that was somehow repaired during last night's adventure. I wonder if whoever repaired it was friendly or not, but there was no hope of getting my tech across it. I might be able to do it with just my cabin, but I had no other techs to refer back to should this cabin get destroyed, no way am I risking that.
New solution, I could always build my own bridge, I now had access to anchor blocks, with enough time and resources I could definitely create my own pathway to the ruins, but a project for another time. Right now I had to find some Cuprite, and making sure to check everywhere, I went on the same exact path I went on the day before. While driving, I noticed something a bit unsettling though, my tire tracks were still there. That was to be expected though, there wasn't much grass to bounce back up after being driven on after all, but still unsettling that I could be tracked by hostile forces.
Still though, I was able to find a rock saturated with Cuprite, quickly mining it yielded a couple chunks of it, along with an obvious vein underneath, something to come back to later. Now that I had what I needed, I made my way back as quick as I could, the ability to finally communicate drove me to drive faster, my tech racing through the trees.
In hindsight, maybe that wasn't the best idea, I quickly figured that out as my small tech nearly crashed into a large creature up ahead. It was actually about the same size as my tech, which was a little worrying, I certainly hoped it wasn't hostile. The creature turned around, looked my tech up and down, sniffed it, seemingly didn't find anything worth attacking, and continued on.
What a relief, I wouldn't have to fight another creature, that one sure looked like it could put up a fight. With that out of the way however, I made it the rest of the way to the base. Back inside, I took the Cuprite ore I had acquired and deposited it into the refinery, out came a simple plate of Cuprite, very nice. Looking back at the Fabrication requirements, I actually needed Cuprite wire to make some speakers, and I couldn't make Cuprite wire without the Component Factory either.
I hate being stuck in loops like this, need one thing to get another thing, but you need the second thing to get the first thing. This was going nowhere, what could I do? I couldn't just make Cuprite wire by myself... right? How else would I get it? Taking stock of what I had, I had to try and craft Cuprite wire with wheels, blocks, and guns.
Simple enough. If it was even possible.
To start, I had a row of wheels up against each other in an attempt to flatten out the Cuprite plate a bit, it worked alright, but left dents in the shape of the tire's tracks in the sheet. Next I set up a crude rolling machine, and attempted to work the sheet into a roll, that barely worked, the texture of the tires still not help in the slightest. I went through this process of rolling it out, then rolling it up lengthwise until I had a decent but mangled "Cuprite wire" I just hoped the Fabricator accepted this.
In it went, along with some Plumbite and Fibrewood. The Fabricator began the fabrication process easily enough, but then it started shaking, like really shaking, enough to worry me that it might explode, however a moment later, a speaker literally flew out of the output, leaving a trail of smoke and nearly being destroyed by impacting against the wall, on the opposite side of the cave. Not much of a problem however, as I quickly placed it into the repair bubble until it was good as new, which it kind of was already.
Attaching it to my tech, I had to test it out, only to stumble onto a problem, the speaker was incredibly low quality, the sound it produced was garbled, and it could only "say" 5 set programs, thankfully I could get it to speak words, but it wasn't easy to understand. It was then that I realized that I might not speak the same language as these people, though that black one did speak in a language I could understand, that didn't mean that the others will too.
Seeing as how I wouldn't know until I tried, I really had to think on what to get the speaker to say. I eventually decided on a simple "hello", "yes", and "no" along with "communication options limited" and finally "Need materials from you". Very simple, but also hard to understand, this wasn't going to be easy.
Slowly rolling up to the dwelling, I couldn't really tell if anyone was inside, the daylight didn't warrant lights to be on, and I couldn't see much from my limited viewpoint. Guess I'd have to get their attention somehow.
"H.E.L.L.O." the speaker said, in a monotonous tone. I waited for a response. None came, so I upped the volume on the speaker and tried again, "H.E.L.L.O." This time, a response did come from inside, a shuffling and strange footsteps lead up to the door. As it opened I heard a voice.
"Who could it be at my door? What are you looking for?" said the mystery person, who I could now tell was female.
"C.O.M.M.U.N.I.C.A.T.I.O.N. O.P.T.I.O.N.S. L.I.M.I.T.E.D." the speaker outputted, "N.E.E.D. M.A.T.E.R.I.A.L.S. F.R.O.M. Y.O.U."
With the door fully opened I could see a person similar in morphology to the black creature, quadrupedal, hooved, but lacked to other features, suck as wings and a horn, or it's slightly imposing stature. As it looked at my tech, I could tell it didn't know how to react, I mean a large, unknown entity comes to your door with limited vocabulary asking you for something, what would you do?
After a moment, I had the speaker say "H.E.L.L.O." again. This seemed to jolt a response out of the person.
"A strange metal construct, though it seems you are down on your luck." said the person
"Y.E.S." I got the speaker to say, I'm glad this person understood my predicament, though I was unsure if they were willing to help.
"It also seems you need materials from me, why could that be?" the person asked.
Oh boy, here we go, this is where it gets difficult. I had the speaker repeat the phrases. "C.O.M.M.U.N.I.C.A.T.I.O.N. O.P.T.I.O.N.S. L.I.M.I.T.E.D." "N.E.E.D. M.A.T.E.R.I.A.L.S. F.R.O.M. Y.O.U."
The person paused for a moment, before realizing what I meant.
"Would these materials help you communicate? I'd hate for that to be anything's fate." the person responded.
"Y.E.S." came from the speaker.
"Then I would assume you'd know the names? Could you tell me for what you came?" asked the person.
Two questions this time, I answered the first with a "Y.E.S.", then the second with a "N.O." and a "C.O.M.M.U.N.I.C.A.T.I.O.N. O.P.T.I.O.N.S. L.I.M.I.T.E.D."
The person thought for a moment, then said, "My inventory is quite vast, showing it all wouldn't be very fast. Would you like me to show you, so you could pick one or two?"
"Y.E.S."
That was a problem, the person only thought I needed one or two things, I had no way to communicate that I actually needed three things, and I don't want to take more than she is willing to give.
"This is going to take awhile, luckily I'm not doing anything else worthwhile," said the person as they headed back inside.
Going through all of her inventory was a pain, she'd bring out two things at once, then I'd either say yes or no if it was what I needed. The reason it took a while though was that she started on the opposite side of her house than the materials I needed were, but eventually I had the three things I needed, and was able to successfully communicate that I had what I needed.
"Those ingredients are quite rare, I hope that later you can share," the person said.
"Y.E.S." was all I could say, I did mean to repay her, but I didn't have the capabilities to tell her that I was probably going to use all of it, hopefully I can go where she got them and both repay her and replenish my own stock.
Finally having the materials I needed, I quickly drove off to the base, this time being careful to where I was heading. I eventually made it back and started work on the Component Factory, I could finally fabricate some better stuff.
To be Continued...